Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display that provides information regarding a projectile trajectory including a relative aiming point. The display includes a reference indictor such as a reference image or reference lines and the relative aiming point.
Description of Prior Art
Bows and arrows, spears, crossbows, guns, and artillery have been used for sport, hunting, and military.
An arrow is typically shot using the arms to pull back the bow string, and to aim and sight by holding the bow and arrow next to the archer's eye. More recently bow sights have been added to all types of bows. Typically a bow sight comprises a plurality of pins that may be adjusted by the archer for aiming at targets at different distances. Some bow sights have a single adjustable pin that is moved to the match the distance to the target.
Balls and/or bullets are typically shot from a gun using the arms to aim and sight by aligning the gun sights or gun scope reticle with the target.
Artillery balls and shells are typically shot by adjusting the aim mechanically.
Arrows, spears, balls, bullets, and shells when fired follow a ballistic trajectory. Such projectiles, which are not self-propelled, move through air according to a generally parabolic (ballistic) curve due primarily to the effects of gravity and air drag.
Rifle and bow scopes conventionally have been fitted with reticles of different forms. Some have horizontal and vertical cross hairs. Others reticles such as mil-dot add evenly spaced dots for elevation and windage along the cross hairs. U.S. Design Pat. No. D522,030, issued on May 30, 2006, shows a SR reticle and graticle design for a scope. Various reticles, such as Multi Aim Point (MAP) and Dot are provided, for example, by Hawke Optics (http://hawkeoptics.com). These reticles are fixed in that the display does not change based on range information. Also, these reticles indicate the approximate hold-over position in that they are positioned under the center of the scope, i.e. below where the cross hairs intersect. They are not necessarily precise, for example, for a specific bow and archer or for a specific rifle and ammunition, but are approximation for the general case.
Hunters and other firearm and bow users commonly utilize handheld rangefinders (see device 10 in FIG. 2) to determine ranges to targets. Generally, handheld rangefinders utilize lasers to acquire ranges for display to a hunter. Utilizing the displayed ranges, the hunter makes sighting corrections to facilitate accurate shooting.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,658,031, issued Feb. 9, 2010, discloses handheld rangefinder technology from Bushnell, Inc, and is hereby included by reference. As shown in FIG. 1, a handheld rangefinder device 10 generally includes a range sensor 12 operable to determine a first range to a target, a tilt sensor 14 operable to determine an angle to the target relative to the device 10, and a computing element 16, coupled with the range sensor 12 and the tilt sensor 14, operable to determine a hold over value based on the first range and the determined angle. The range information is displayed on a display 30. A housing 20 contains the elements of the device 10. Bushnell Angle Range Compensation (ARC) rangefinders show the first linear range to the target and also show an angle and a second range, which represents the horizontal distance to the target. Handheld rangefinders, telescope sights, and other optical devices typically comprise a laser range sensor and an inclinometer.
The range information is superimposed over the image that is seen through the optics. For example, U.S. Design Pat. No. D453,301, issued Feb. 5, 2002, shows an example of a design for a display for a Bushnell rangefinder, and is hereby included by reference. FIG. 2 shows an exemplary display 30 appearing in a handheld rangefinder device 10.
With convention rangefinder and a rifle there is no correlation between the display of the rangefinder and the user's individual rifle sight or scope. To make an effective shot requires several steps. All of the movement and time taken during these steps will likely be noticed by the target and allow the target an opportunity to move resulting in having to repeat the process or miss the shot altogether.
What is needed is an improved display that provides a relative aiming point relative to a reference with a predetermined size or height, so the user can visualize where to aim.